Though it cannot be guaranteed, one unexpected benefit of unschooling and of parenting peacefully seems to be that children get along better with siblings. Here are some stories of

Peaceful Sibling Relations

My name is Mary Beth and I have been a silent member of the group, but
so enjoy all the nurturing family life stories. My four kids are ages
10-21 and get along very well together. They have common interests,
such as Japanese anime, video games, and drawing and often spend time
together. They share spaces and resources without a problem.

My oldest son saw my daughters listening to an iPod, each with one
earplug, and went out and bought them a splitter so they could each
have a full pair. He also provided them with a lot of music. And, he
is teaching my daughter how to make a website. My two sons, 18 and
21, share friends and often go places together or make purchases of
electronics together. I really love it when my 18yo son, 16yo
daughter, and 10yo daughter retreat to the girls' rooms to listen to
music and draw for the evening. Sometimes, my 10yo daughter will play
videogames with her 18yo brother and they have a great time. My 16yo
daughter and 10yo daughter share interest in ballet and will often
talk ballet together or watch ballet videos or even practice together.

Sometimes, my husband and I will hear them all chatting and laughing
together and my husband will laughingly say, "This has got to stop!"
We have had strangers at restaurants tell us that they enjoy seeing
how our kids get along together.

Just wanted to say that I attribute this all to being homeschooled as
they have grown together instead of apart.

Mary Beth

Regarding the connection between home/unschooling and "sibling harmony" (as
opposed to "rivalry")...

I just spent six weeks in Florida with my three boys (7, 9, 11). We stayed in
relatively close quarters with my mother (83) and her 90 year-old
partner, who is fairly conservative. Needless to say, I was a bit
apprehensive about how all of this would go down (they'd never really
seen our "unschooling life" up close).

Anyway, it was all fine. BUT they were absolutely blown away by (and
kept commenting on) my boys' ability to get along, the fact that all three
played together for hours, the relative absence of bickering, etc.

Then, we spent several days with friends in Orlando (more boys, more
unschoolers) and again, the five kids just played so beautifully
together and were consistently respectful of each other.

It seems to me that so much of what they're learning as unschoolers is
the "true grit" of living: communication, interaction, observation,
exploration, etc...and it shows!

Like you all were saying in the thread about hiring: "Gimme an
unschooler any day!"

Cheers,
Sandy

I see this with my two who are 6-1/2 years apart in age. Zach 15 and
Zoe 8 spend lots of time together most days. Zach reads long books
and entire series to Zoe, they play video-games together, peruse
Homestarrunner.com and even play imaginative role-playing games
together. Sometimes, when sibling-friends come over, all four or
more of them will play elaborate imaginative games outdoors or video-
games with lots of uproarious laughter for hours on end.
Occasionally, the younger kids will "put on a play" for the
entertainment of the older ones. Everyone is usually patient and
kind and generous. It is so heartwarming. I never imagined that my
kids would be such good friends but keeping their bond strong was one
of my motivations for homeschooling.

If I'd sent Zach to school, he would have started two months before
Zoe was born and they probably would never have grown to know and
care for each other like they do.

I've been thinking lately about the camaraderie between Brenna (16) and Logan (13). We're in a new house and I can hear them easier at night now when I've gone to bed. They stay up later than I do watching TV or playing games or just hanging out together. Many nights I wake up not because the TV is too loud but because of the sound of their laughter. It's a comforting happy sound and a nice way to go to sleep.

Logan planned his 13th birthday party last week and the first person on his guest list was Brenna. I didn't expect them to be such good friends when they were teens. It's very cool.

Gail

Yesterday, Josh built a voice modulator from a kit, and he and Emily
were playing with it. Rachel got frustrated because she really really
thought it was cool and wanted a turn. She started off with whining
and begging, and we kind of talked about how we liked to be asked for
our stuff. So, she walked up and said "Josh, do you mind if I have a
turn?" and he said sure. He handed it over and watched them and
laughed a little about how funny they are (she was singing Domo
Aragoto, mr roboto, while Emily did the robot dance). I bumped up
against him and said, thanks bro, you're cool. He just kind of
shrugged it off and said, I'll have plenty of time to play with it
another day.

Today, Dan and I were playing with a shape-o ball, and and Sam kept
racing to pick up the pieces. Dan got really upset, and was
screaming. I reminded Dan to use words to tell people how we feel,
and got Sam's attention (he's a little, hm, how to say? a little boy)
and Dan said "It makes me mad when you play with those right now!".
Sam said sorry, and handed the shapes over to Dan. Within minutes,
they were both playing a game with the shapes, and played together
without fighting for about 20 minutes, at which point Sam decided to
go play video games with Emily. Then Dan handed the shapes over to
Avari to play with while he plays sea creatures. Now I'm a shark and
need to get offline ;-)